Clause 24 - Positions of trust: interpretation
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
Public Bill Committees, 16 September 2003, 3:30 pm
Mr Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe & Sale East, Labour)
I have been given helpful advice, which goes to the heart of the question, ''What does regular mean; how is it defined?'' which was asked by the hon. Members for Romsey and for Woking. Whether regular contact applies in particular circumstances is for the courts to decide. It is not one-off contact. It must have a pattern and be consistent. We have tried to draft the clause widely to capture several relationships that could be defined as regular. Clearly, a full-time class teacher or a member of staff in a children's home is in regular contact with the child. However, the peripatetic teacher who takes a music class once a week, about whom we have already heard, is also in regular contact with the child. The physiotherapist who gives treatment to a child one day a week has a regular relationship with the child.